Today, on Juneteenth, The Nation and the Daily Beast reported how Donald Trump for years has repeatedly insulted predominantly Black cities like Milwaukee, Philly, Detroit, Baltimore and Atlanta all while he fails Black voters.

Donald Trump continues to call these predominantly Black cities “corrupt,” “disgusting,” and says that living in these cities where millions work and raise their families is “like living in Hell.”

Key Point: “Trump is a lot of things but he certainly isn’t subtle—all of the cities he denigrates have one important thing in common: they all have significant Black populations,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison wrote in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Whether it’s Milwaukee, Philly, Detroit, or Atlanta, Trump isn’t just insulting 97 square miles on a map, he’s insulting Black communities, Black history, and Black voices.”

“He’s telling us exactly what he thinks of Black Americans, and we’re listening,” Harrison continued. “That’s why when we go to the polls on Nov. 5, we’re going to vote for someone who respects Black communities, who uplifts Black voices, and who commemorates Black history. We’re going to vote for President Joe Biden.”

The Nation: Trump Has Slurred Black-Led Cities Before. In Milwaukee, He’s Paying For It

By Joan Walsh 

• This year, Democrats are fighting back, as polls purport to show Trump’s Black support climbing. “Donald Trump’s vicious attacks against cities like Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are emblematic of his disastrous attempts to court Black voters,” DNC senior spokesperson Marcus W. Robinson said in a statement. “Under his presidency, the Black uninsured rate spiked, as did the Black unemployment rate. Black voters aren’t going to forget how disastrous Trump’s term was, and that is why they will once again power Joe Biden back to the White House this November.”

• After Trump lost in 2020, he repeatedly blamed cities with large Black populations and leadership for various imagined kinds of voter fraud and wrongdoing. He tweeted: “Biden did poorly in big cities except those of Detroit (more votes than people!), Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee. Not surprisingly, they are all located in the most important swing states, and are long known for being politically corrupt!” In remarks just after the election, he claimed, “Detroit and Philadelphia—known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country, easily—cannot be responsible for engineering the outcome of a Presidential race.”

• He tried, and failed, to invalidate 200,000 votes in Milwaukee and Madison (the state capital has Wisconsin’s second-largest Black population).

• Likewise, when the late civil rights hero Representative John Lewis announced that he wouldn’t attend Trump’s inauguration, Trump claimed that Lewis’s home district of Atlanta was “falling apart” and “crime-infested.”

• And during the 2016 race, he falsely said that “half of all Detroit residents do not work, and cannot work, and can’t get a job,” and blamed “crooked Hillary Clinton.” At his September debate with Clinton, he went on: “We have a situation where we have our inner cities, African Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.”

The Daily Beast: Top Dem Trolls Trump for Juneteenth: All the Cities You Diss are Black

By Mini Racker

• The DNC had a field day with Trump’s reported comment, rolling out ten new billboards around Milwaukee that highlighted what he said. The former president, meanwhile, downplayed the reports, saying on TV that he was “always planning on staying” in Cream City and telling a crowd in Racine, WI, “I love Milwaukee. I was the one that picked Milwaukee.”

• According to Census data, Black residents make up the largest share of Milwaukee’s population

• This isn’t the first time the former president has slammed the city. Shortly after losing the 2020 election, Trump namechecked the city, along with others with large Black populations, like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, as “long known for being politically corrupt!”

• Some of Trump’s most vivid criticisms have targeted the cities with the largest shares of Black residents.

• In a 2019 tiff with the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who represented Baltimore, Trump called the congressman’s district “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” tweeting about Cummings, “If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.”

• “Those people are living in hell in Baltimore,” he added in remarks to reporters days later. “They’re largely African American. You have a large African American population. And they really appreciate what I’m doing, and they’ve let me know it.”